When did you feel like an adult?

[sm4987]

31 and I haven't hit that point yet! Married, kids, and nope, that didn't do it. Not sure if it ever will.

I don't wanna grow up..................

 

[vetrik]

I'm almost 26, and it hits me once in a while that my friends and I are technically "grown-ups" now, even though mostly I still feel really young.

I remember it hitting me when DH and I moved into our first rented house after our wedding 2 years ago, and I looked around and realized that everything in the house was ours. It was our dishes we picked out, our couch, etc. Now we feel it even more since we bought our first house in April. Sometimes I look around amazed that we're not in college anymore. We work fulltime, pay a mortgage, have car payments, and spend more time at home with our puppy doing house projects than hanging out with friends.

It really hit me yesterday when I went to a 4th of July cookout with some college friends. There was no Beer Pong, no Quarters, no drinking card games - just a group of people sitting around with burgers talking about weddings (there were 4 couples there getting married in the next year), jobs, and fixed vs. adjustable rate mortgages! I think part of it is that I realized that my gatherings with friends are starting to resemble how I remember my parents hanging out with their friends 20 years ago.

 

[Bob Slydell]

When my soon-to-be DW and I signed the paperwork on our first mortgage.

 

[jennyl772003]

After my son was born. I was 19 and here I was talking to all the mothers in my family-as a mother myself.

it was really quite shocking since at 18 I was still most definatly a kid in the families eyes, and at 19 I was thrust into adulthood.

I still felt, and feel sometimes like I am just playing at being a mom. Especially when I look around and I am the youngest mom. I felt like such a faker when DS was in cub scouts and all the other parents were so much older then me.

 

[Tinkin]

The realization that I was the "grown up" hit me last year, at 35 and it was from a very silly, unimportant thing.

Growing up in my house we had 4 kids and ONE pair of scissors. I have no idea why we only had one pair of scissors, they must have been more expensive when I was younger.

Well everytime my mom needed the scissors they were missing and, out of the 4 of us kids, we could never remember who had them last or where they might be so life screeched to a halt until the scissors were found. All during the search my mother would remind/nag us that we needed to put things back where we found them, and on and on and on.......

In my house we have about 10 pairs of scissors - you can never have to many scissors - That's my motto! 3 pairs are kept in a junk drawer in the kitchen, 2 are in the home office and the rest are scattered between my 8 yr olds playroom and bedroom....she seriously has about 5 pairs of scissors but still takes manages to carry the rest upstairs with her.

Like I said, this happened last year, my daughter was 7, I walked into the kitchen to get a pair of scissors from the drawer, I open the drawer to find no scissors...no big deal. I head to the office at the front of the house, I'll just use a pair of those, I open the first desk drawer.... no scisssors, I open the 2nd desk drawer....NO SCISSORS. How can this happen?!?!?!?!

I yell to my daughter G____ WHERE ARE ALL MY SCISSORS?!?! and as the words were coming out of my mouth it hit me like a ton of bricks...OMG I am a grown up!

 

[Ginamarie]

I'm 27, married, recently became a mom, and I still don't feel like an "adult." I'm a lawyer, but when I go to court I still feel like I'm playing make-believe attorney sometimes, because certainly I'm not all grown up and a lawyer! Don't get me wrong, I know what I'm doing, but I still feel like a kid.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I am 32 and I still don't feel like an adult. I have a mortgage, car payment, job, etc. I am married, have two teens from DH's first marriage, etc. Yet I still feel like a 16 year old.

 

[Sandy V.]

Buying our first house, having our first child, and burying my parents were all big steps on the "adult" ladder.

I have to say, though, that being pregnant with our first was the most "Oh my goodness, this means I have to grow up" moment in my life. I can remember the blood draining from my face at the sheer thought of being responsible for another human being.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

I'm 27, I have a 5 year old daughter, I've been divorced for 4 years and I have way too many bills. I feel ancient.

 

[ead79]

It's funny that this thread should come up because I was just thinking about this the other day.

I'm just shy of 27 and have been married for 2.5 years. We don't own a home yet, but we own cars, pay all the bills, manage our finances, plan for our future, etc. Even though we're responsible, I still don't really feel like an "adult." One minute it seems like high school was forever ago, then it almost seems like it would be normal to strap the backpack on and head back to school tomorrow. Though we make our own decisions, we often consult my parents for advice. I guess I thought as a kid that I wouldn't need my parents as much as an adult as I do. Thank the Lord my parents are such wonderful people!

One thing that has made me feel older is my grandmother's failing health. As a child you think they will always be there, but as an adult you realize they won't be.

I would imagine that I'll feel more like an "adult" when I have kids of my own.

 

[Cantw8]

, alright Cantw8, your the one that wont be safe in any position around me

 

[Evil Genius]

At the age of 47 I don't feel like an adult. There have been times when I've had to step up and be one. But on a daily basis, nope. Does it bother me...not really.

 

[Molly Meow]

For me, I feel it was when out of sheer boredom, I picked up a legal text and read it. I actually said out loud, "Oh my God! This is what I want to do!" It was the first time I'd ever felt like that. Honestly, since that moment my life has been different.

I got serious about school, went on to be a certified paralegal, and am now trying to get into law school. I really feel like I've done a complete 180 in two years.

 

[Monte Cristo]

I just turned 35 years old, my wife recently gave birth to our first child, we own a nice home, have all sorts of "responsibility", and I STILL don't feel like an adult.

To support my claim...true story...yesterday my 38 yo sister was counting the adults we had at our cookout in order to get a number for burgers. Her quote to MY WIFE who was getting the burgers out was...ok we have 7 adults and [Monte Cristo]. I am not even an adult in her eyes. Everyone got a kick out of her fruedian slip!

 

[lyzziesmom]

31yo single mom of 2 here. I don't know the "moment" that it happened, and some days I doubt that it ever really did. There are some days that I feel like I am a peer to my own kids, we goof around and play together and really have a good time. I live near my parents and they still treat me like one of the kids. Just last night I was told not to talk back!

Then there are the days - like today - when I am swamped at work, my arthritic back is throbbing so bad I can hardly walk, and I have lots of bills to pay. I still don't feel like an "adult" in my mind, but I feel much older than I am.

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

I'm 34 and I still don't always feel like an adult.

That said, I knew I was a grown-up when I researched and bought a new dishwasher and was super excited about it! I'm telling you, you know you're a grown-up when doing the dishes in a new dishwasher is so exciting you want to talk about it all the time... a dishwasher for goodness sake!

 

[vetrik]

I'm 34 and I still don't always feel like an adult.

That said, I knew I was a grown-up when I researched and bought a new dishwasher and was super excited about it! I'm telling you, you know you're a grown-up when doing the dishes in a new dishwasher is so exciting you want to talk about it all the time... a dishwasher for goodness sake!

I know that feeling! I would love to have a new dishwasher. DH and I are doing a lot of work around the house - and I actually said to him that we must be grown-ups now because we spent last Friday night at Lowe's for 2 hours. I used to find Lowe's the most boring store in the world, and now I'm spending my Friday nights there!

 

[mommiepoppins]

well when I turned 30

 

[cardaway]

The first time a bill came with my name on it. Somehow just moving out didn't do it. It took the first light bill for things it hit home that there was adult responsibilities now.

 

[Sleepy]

I started feeling like an adult when I started looking like one. I have always looked many years younger than my age. (being 24 and people mistaking me for 16; being 30 and people thinking I am 20). During the last 2 years, I have developed some medical problems, gained weight, had a very difficult last year with my schedule and overall exhaustion has taken a toll on my body. Especially my face. Of course, having my now 14 year old son looking older and being taller than me is sort of that final kick in the brain that I truly am older now. I feel it too. I'm 36.